Bosnia Force In Days

Perry Indicates U.s. Readies 700 Troops

November 28, 1995

BRUSSELS — As many as 700 U.S. soldiers will enter Bosnia in a few days as part of a spearhead NATO force to begin clearing the way for the main body of allied peacekeepers, Defense Secretary William Perry said Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters en route from Washington to NATO headquarters in the Belgian capital, Perry provided details about the U.S. part of the Bosnia mission to be carried out by a NATO force called the Implementation Force, or IFOR.

President Clinton said Monday he will ask Congress for an expression of support for the mission as soon as he approves a final version of the IFOR plan. Clinton is expected to give the go-ahead after seeing U.S. commanders on Saturday.

Perry flew to Brussels to work out final arrangements for the peace mission. One of his main goals was to settle a dispute with Russia over how much say Moscow will have in political decisions about the Bosnia peace operation.

Perry met with Russian Defense Minister Gen. Pavel Grachev Tuesday at NATO headquarters to find a formula to satisfy Moscow's demand that it be given a substantial voice in political deliberations while preserving the role of NATO's political arm, the North Atlantic Council, as the sole authority for IFOR.

Russia is not a NATO member and therefore has no seat on the North Atlantic Council.

After his meeting with Perry, Grachev told reporters in a brief encounter that he was pleased and confident the political issue would be settled. It was not immediately clear from his remarks whether he and Perry had reached an agreement.

A NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Grachev provided Perry with a previously confidential plan with details on Russian peacekeeper deployments, including the number that would join the U.S.-led force.

Perry said an advance group of NATO troops, including between 500 and 700 American GIs, would head for Bosnia exactly two weeks ahead of a Paris conference at which the leaders of Serbia, Croatia and the Bosnian Muslims are to sign the peace treaty that the warring factions initialed in Dayton on Nov. 21.

The date for the Paris session is not firm, but Perry said it would be in mid-December. That means the first NATO troops would enter Bosnia as early as this weekend to set up communications, headquarters, supply bases and other basic infrastructure to enable the full 60,000-soldier NATO peace force to move in.

The main NATO force, to include about 20,000 American troops, would begin deploying to Bosnia "within a few days at most" after the Paris signing ceremony, Perry said.

About one-half of the 20,000-soldier U.S. contingent will be in place in Bosnia about three or four weeks after the Paris conference, and it will take another month or so to get the full American force there, Perry said. They will be under the command of U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Nash, commander of the 1st Armored Division.